we didn't get the flocks of waxwings in florida this year.. there are a lot of holly trees in this part of the state; we have a really big one in our back yard. every couple of winters, we'll get huge flocks of cedar waxwings coming through to eat the berries. it's amazing to watch, this group of a couple hundred birds swooping into the holly trees to get berries and then across in the other trees to eat them, while another group takes their place.

Up here in beautiful BC, this is a common occurence. Birds will eat mountain ash berries and get totally blitzed on them. When the berries start to turn and go fermented, the trees are filled with birds trying to eat them. Just like us, they love their booze!

Psychlone is right. We have mountain ash trees and junipers in our yard. The birds eat and eat and eat, then they try to fly away and either fall down or hit the windows. Feathers everywhere. It's funny to see them wobble around in a drunken stupor.

Les: No parachutes yet. Can't be skydivers... I can't tell just yet what they are, but - Oh my God, Johnny, they're turkeys!! Johnny, can you get this? Oh, they're plunging to the earth right in front of our eyes! One just went through the windshield of a parked car! Oh, the humanity! The turkeys are hitting the ground like sacks of wet cement! Not since the Hindenberg tragedy has there been anything like this!

Johnny: Les? Are you there? Les isn't there. (composing himself) Thanks for that on-the-spot report, Les, and for those of you who just tuned in, the Pinedale Shopping Mall has just been bombed with live turkeys. Film at eleven.

Jennifer: But Mr Colly, a lot of turkeys don't make it through Thanksgiving!

Venus: Les! Are you okay?Les: I don't know. A man and his two children tried to kill me. After the turkeys hit the pavement, the crowd kind of scattered, but some of them tried to attack me! I had to jam myself into a phone booth! Then Mr Carlson had the helicopter land in the middle of the parking lot. I guess he thought he could save the day by turning the rest of the turkeys loose. It gets pretty strange after that.Andy: Les, c'mon now, tell us the rest.Les: I really don't know how to describe it. It was like the turkeys mounted a counterattack! It was almost as if they were ...organized!!Mr Carlson: As God is my witness, I thought turkeys could fly.

Hotblack, you may be a bit too young, but there was once an episode of WKRP in Cincinnati when their newsman Les Nessmann was covering a Thanksgiving promotional where they "released" turkeys over the city. Obviously, the turkeys could not fly, prompting one of the greatest comic performances in TV history. This was circa 1980, so instead of special effects, they just had to rely on the radio play by play of poor Les. I still chuckle thinking about it now.

Ah, WKRP. That first season was one of the best of any show. I also loved "Tornado":

Interpreter: I was hired to interpret for a group of Spanish-speaking visitors. In my opinion, these people are not Spanish. Watch this. (He speaks in Spanish; no reaction from the Japanese men.) See? In my country, that would be a fistfight!

Mr Carlson: Wait a minute. I learned a little Japanese when I was in the Marines. Let me think about this... The accent may be off. (He speaks in Japanese; all the Japanese men put their hands up.) Oh boy.